What language is spoken in Italy. Italian language and dialects. As they say in Northern Italy

Official language, adopted in Italy, is Italian- a beautiful melodic language of the Romance group, belonging to the Indo-European family. It is generally believed to be spoken by all Italians, although in fact it is divided into such a huge number of dialects and dialects, diverging from each other, that often the inhabitants of the north and south do not understand each other.

Films released in the northern part of the country are even dubbed for showing in the southern regions. Moreover, some dialects, according to linguists, do not belong to the Romance group and can be considered as separate languages.

Literary Italian, adopted as the official language in Italy and disseminated through television, goes back to the vernacular Latin spoken by the inhabitants of the late Roman Empire. Its formation was also influenced by Old French and Old Provençal languages. The first records in Italian date back to the 10th century AD, after which the Florentine dialect began to dominate in Italy. And from the end of the 13th century, as the basis of a new literary Italian style taken Tuscan dialect, in which the main authors of Italy of the Middle Ages wrote - Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio. Their language was essentially taken as the basis of common Italian, as the standard of the classical literary language. Thus, modern literary Italian is based on the Tuscan dialect.

Italians have a very developed division into ethnic groups, so despite the spread of a common language throughout the country, dialects continue to play a large role in everyday life. About 86% of the country's residents know the national language, but most of them also use dialects. 13%, according to a 1992 study, cannot even speak standard Italian. Ligurian, Florentine, Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian and other dialects are widespread. Sardinian and Friulian are so different from Italian that they are considered separate languages. In total, there are more than a hundred dialects and dialects in the country.

Italian is official language San Marino, Vatican, Switzerland and adopted as one official in the European Union. Also spoken in Italy are Albanian, French, Croatian, Slovenian, German languages- they are spoken mainly in border areas. Due to the large number of immigrants in the country, there are many speakers of languages ​​from the Middle East, Maghreb countries, and Asia.

Italian uses the Latin alphabet with additional characters- diacritics and digraphs. In oral speech, Italians are accustomed to supplementing what is said with abundant gestures, which give the language expressiveness. A large number of metaphors, proverbs and sayings give Italian great imagery, although many foreigners believe that such complex speech only masks the meaning of what is said.

Italy is famous for its dialects. There is a common phrase: “A northerner will never understand a southerner,” and vice versa. No one can give the exact number of dialects, but rest assured, there are at least a hundred of them, although there are only 20 regions in Italy! Italian dialectism is an indicative phenomenon of how different conditions change the language and develop it.

The diversity of the “languages” of Italy occurred due to a number of historical reasons: Italy has always consisted of many independent regions, which for centuries were separate states.

What are their features?

Northern Italian dialects.

Northern Italy is classified as a Gallo-Roman dialect. Here are examples of several areas.

Valle d’ Aosta(Valle d'Aosta) is a small region in the northwest that borders France and Switzerland. In addition to Italian, the official language here is French, and residents also communicate in their native Franco-Provençal dialect and Occitan (Provençal language).

Piedmont(Piemonte), whose capital is Turin, uses the Piedmontese dialect in communication. It is spoken by about 2 million people!

In the region Veneto(Veneto) and throughout the northern coast Adriatic Sea power was seized by the Venetian dialect, which happened historically, taking into account the political and cultural development Venice.

However, a significant part of Italians live in Lombardy(Lombardia) with its capital in Milan - a rich and developed northern province. About 10 million people speak the Lombard dialect! The Lombard language ranks second after Italian.

The Tuscany region is famous for its classic Italian. After all, this is where the linguistic unification of regions originated. Now every Italian, regardless of the region of residence, learns two languages ​​- literary Italian and “his own”, in order to be able to communicate in his province. But the Tuscan dialect has its own peculiarity in pronunciation. For example, Tuscans do not pronounce the letter “k”, they sound it like “x”.

In turn, the south of Italy belongs to the group of Italo-Romance dialects. Southern dialects are common in the southern Apennine Mountains, central Italy, the island of Sicily, and it is very popular in the United States, since many southerners emigrated there at one time.

In the Campania region, with its capital in Naples, there is a Neapolitan dialect, which even for a person speaking Italian sounds like an illogical set of sounds.

Here are some examples of differences in dialects.

“street” - via, but there are about 400 words with different renderings of the word “street” in dialects:

• In Verona it is "regasta";
• In Mantua - “spalto”;
• In Venice - “calle”;
• In Padua - “riviera”;
• In Naples it is “cupa”.

“boy” is ragazzo, but this is him in the classic Italian version, and:

• In Rome - “ragà”;
• In Naples - "guaglione".

In general, the difference in dialects is significant!

Remember - Italy became united only in 1861! As a whole, she is still so young...

The languages ​​and dialects in Italy are so different from each other that residents of different regions of the same country cannot always understand each other. The dialects of the Italian language have received such diversity due to a number of historical reasons. Historically, Italy consisted of many separate regions, which over the centuries had all the characteristics individual states. Among these distinctive features there was a language that was different from the language neighboring region. Today in modern Italy there are 20 regions, but the number of languages ​​and dialects in these regions is much more than 20. In this article we will try to find out what languages ​​and dialects there are in Italy, why they were formed there and how they differ from the languages ​​or dialects of neighboring Italian regions.

The best way to classify the languages ​​and dialects of Italy is geographically. To do this, we will conditionally divide Italy into three zones: northern, central and southern.

Languages ​​and dialects of northern Italy

The northern zone of Italy includes 8 administrative regions: Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna.

Valle d'Aosta is the smallest administrative region in the northwestern part of Italy, bordering France and Switzerland. The following languages ​​and dialects are common in this mountainous region of Italy: French as one of the official languages, Franco-Provencal is the language of the indigenous population (language considered endangered), as well as the Occitan (Provençal) language.

To the south of Valle d'Aosta there is a large administrative region of Piedmont. In the central part of Piedmont, the Piedmontese dialect is used for communication (one of the dialects of the Italian language, spoken by about 2 million people), in the west of the region the Occitan language is widespread, and in the east - Lombard dialect of Italian.

To the south of Piedmont is Liguria, a small coastal region of Italy. In Liguria, about a million inhabitants speak several Ligurian dialects of Italian, incl. in the Genoese dialect (note: Genoa is the capital of Liguria).

A significant part of the Italian population lives in the rich and developed northern administrative province of Lombardy. The language used in this region is Lombard, which in turn is divided into 2 dialects of Italian: Western Lombard and Eastern Lombard. Lombard dialects (or Lombard language, as some believe) are spoken by about 10 million people, which is the second most in Italy (after classical Italian).

To the northeast of Lombardy is an autonomous region of Italy called Trentino-Alto Adige. This region borders Austria and Switzerland to the north, and its population speaks German and Ladin (one of the Romansh languages).

East of Lombardy is the Veneto region (the capital is Venice). Several varieties of the Venetian dialect of Italian are used in Veneto.

East of others northern regions Italy is home to the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which borders Austria to the north and Slovenia to the east. Based on my geographical location, in this region, in addition to the official Italian language, the common languages ​​are Friulian (one of the Romansh languages), Cimbrian (one of the Germanic languages), as well as the Slovenian language (Gorizia and Trieste).

The southernmost region in the northern region of Italy is Emilia-Romagna. In this region, about 3 million people speak Emilian and Romagnol dialects of Italian with their transitional forms.

Languages ​​and dialects of central Italy

An important region of Italy in terms of the formation of the classical Italian language is Tuscany. It was on the basis of the Tuscan dialects of the Italian language that in the Middle Ages the classical Italian language began to form, which later became the official language for all of Italy and was included in the 20 most widespread languages ​​in the world (native speakers of classical Italian are the largest group in the territory of modern Italy).

Tuscany's neighboring regions of Umbria and Marche use Tuscan dialects of Italian, as well as the Sabine dialect of Italian.

The Roman dialect of Italian originates from that branch of the Latin language called “vernacular Latin”. In his historical development The Roman dialect was influenced by the Neapolitan and Tuscan dialects of the Italian language. The Roman dialect of Italian is used in Rome itself and some cities in the Lazio region (in the southern part of Lazio the Neapolitan dialect is used).

Languages ​​and dialects of southern Italy

Among the languages ​​and Italian dialects of the southern part of the country, the Neapolitan dialect stands out (many call it the Neapolitan language). In addition to Neapolitan, dialects from the regions of Abruzzo and Molise have become widespread in southern Italy. In the southern administrative regions of Apulia and Calabria, in addition to the actual Apulian and Calabrian dialects of the Italian language, the Albanian language is used (a significant number of ethnic Albanians live in these regions). IN southern parts Sicilian dialects of Italian are spoken in Calabria.

Languages ​​and dialects of the Italian islands

The largest islands in Italy are Sicily and Sardinia. These islands have been influenced by different cultures (Greek, Roman, Arab) in different historical eras, which is reflected in the languages ​​and dialects of these regions. In Sicily, several Sicilian dialects have formed depending on the geographical location (central, eastern and western). The Sicilian language differs significantly from standard Italian.

Sardinia has even more languages ​​and dialects. The main language of the island is Sardinian, which is spoken by more than a million people. There are several dialects of the Sardinian language (Sassarian, Galluran, Nuoran, Logudorian). The Sardinian language includes features of both Italian and Spanish.

In addition to the Sardinian language, the Corsican language (in the north of Sardinia) and the Catalan language (Alghero) are used on the island.

This concludes our brief overview of the languages ​​in Italy, as well as the dialects of the Italian language, of which, due to historical and geographical reasons, there were so many in such a relatively small area.

A dialect (Greek - “adverb” from the Greek “to speak, to express oneself”) is a language system that serves as a means of communication for a small territorially defined group of people, for example: aborigines of one or more settlements who are native speakers of the language and local dialect. A set of dialects united by common linguistic features is also a dialect.

Typically, a distinction is made between territorial dialects - varieties of language that are dominant in a certain territory as a means of communication for the local population - and social dialects - varieties of language in which certain social groups of the population communicate. The boundaries between territorial dialects of closely related languages ​​occupying adjacent territories are arbitrary. Territorial dialects dominate primarily in everyday use; They have a predominantly oral form of existence, for example, works of folklore. There is an opinion that speakers of dialects of the same language understand each other freely, but sometimes dialects of the same language are mutually incomprehensible, but the speakers different languages can easily understand each other.

The concept of dialect is focused on the linguistic situation inherent in modern European countries. In them, dialects exist adjacent to the national literary language, both in written and spoken form and in stylistic varieties.

Almost every language is rich in dialects; each language has such peculiarities - the course of history leaves its mark.

Italian belongs to the Romance group of Indo-European languages, i.e. originated from spoken Latin and has a continuous oral tradition. The literary language of Italy was formed on the basis of the Tuscan dialect.

The Italian language consists of many dialects that differ from each other. They are divided by territorial basis:

- the northern group of dialects of the Italian language: Ligurian, Lombard, Venetian, Piedmontese, Emilian dialects, which are called Gallo-Roman;

- central group of dialects: Roman, Corsican, Tuscan (closer to the literary language), Umbrian dialects;

- southern group of dialects: Abruzzese, Apulian, Sicilian, Calabrian, Neapolitan dialects.

Fiction exists in both Sicilian and Neapolitan.

Spoken Italian is a collection of living dialects and regional varieties. Despite the variety of dialects, all Italians understand standard Italian perfectly. They speak literary Italian, in which most books and periodicals are published, and television and radio broadcasts are conducted. Italian Internet sites are also usually created in a literary language.

The conversations of the indigenous people may seem incomprehensible to you at first. The main difficulty of the language is the abundance of dialects and pronunciation options that differ from each other. Which is not a problem for Italians. The sound of the Italian language also depends on the difference in temperament: while in the center and north of the country the inhabitants are quite calm, then the southerners are famous for their expressive character. A Sicilian, for example, manages to pronounce several times more words in one minute than a Roman.

Legislatively, the highest legal status on the Apennine Peninsula is assigned to Italian. In other words, the official language of Italy is the only one - Italian. However, not only nature, cuisine, songs and customs, but also dialects in Italy are very different, and therefore an islander from Capri will not understand a resident of Milan from the first seven notes.

Some statistics and facts

• The northern dialects of Italian traditionally include idioms distributed above the conventional line between La Spezia and Rimini.
• The central ones are in use further south, all the way to the Rome-Ancona line.
• South-central can be heard in northern Umbria, Perugia, the center of the Marche region and northwestern Lazio. This also includes the Roman dialect.
• The southern ones are the dialects of Abruzzo, Molise, Apulian, Lucanian and Campanian dialects.
• The far south speaks Salentine, Southern Calabrian and Sicilian dialects.
• In total, there are more than a hundred dialects and dialects in Italy.

History and modernity

The official language of Italy was formed on the basis of Romance dialects, which appeared as a result of the transformation of the folk version of Latin. The dialect of Tuscany is taken as the basis for literary Italian. This area was once home to Etruscan tribes.
The history of the Italian language, as well as the culture of the country, has several periods. The first written evidence of its existence appeared in the 10th century. In the 12th century, Italian was cultivated in the Montecassino monastery, where the largest library of ancient and early Christian literature in Europe was gradually assembled. Two centuries later, the Tuscan dialect was finally established as the literary language of Italy.
The position of Italian dialects, despite their vitality, was significantly weakened during the First World War, when soldiers from different regions were forced to communicate in a single literary Italian.

Note to tourists

The country, oriented towards foreign travelers, makes every effort to make foreigners feel as comfortable as possible in its cities. The vast majority of Italians employed in the service sector and travel services - waiters, salespeople in stores and hotel receptionists - speak English.
IN information centers for tourists you can find a lot of information and audio guides in English, German and French, and in popular beach resorts The menus of some restaurants and hotel information are also duplicated in Russian.